Certainly one of Central Park’s most notable residents took an unscheduled flight late Thursday, resulting in an all-night standoff between zoo employees and Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl.
Central Park Zoo officers first seen hassle round 8:30 p.m. when the hen’s exhibit had been vandalized and its chrome steel mesh was reduce. Flaco, they realized, was lacking.
A workforce was shortly assembled and dispatched searching for the hen. Fortunately, they did not must look too far earlier than Flaco was noticed simply exterior the park on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue.
The eurasian eagle owl caught the eye of onlookers (fortunate sufficient to get an up-close view with out paying for a ticket) after Flaco landed on the sidewalk close to Fifth Avenue and East sixtieth Avenue. Makes an attempt to corral the hen had been unsuccessful and he flew off to a close-by tree.
Zoo employees discovered the owl perched within the tree, not removed from his dwelling, and saved an in depth watch all evening. The zoo stated employees stayed available till round dawn, when Flaco made his subsequent transfer.
The owl headed for the park, “where we continue to have visual contact with the bird,” the zoo stated.
And that is the place the owl was final noticed Friday, close to Sixth Avenue and Central Park South. Central’s Park’s City Park Rangers had been maintaining a tally of the hen. Whereas its identify, Flaco, is Spanish for skinny, the first concern is ensuring it has sufficient meals to eat and getting it recovered shortly.
“The near-term concern is that it probably won’t be eating, so it would be good to get it captured as soon as possible,” stated David Barrett, who runs the favored hen watching Twitter account “Manhattan Bird Alert. “It in all probability will not be consuming by itself in Central Park, as it has been a captive owl. It in all probability will not have the talents wanted to hunt, though it would. There are numerous rats and rodents in Central Park.”
Barrett stated the owl is used to chilly climate since its pure habitat is the mountains.
The Hallet Nature Sanctuary, the place Flaco usually is saved, was closed whereas crews labored to securely return the owl.